DDR Censorship History

[Zonic]

Despite ITG's wierd censorship, this lead me to think about DDR & why alot of songs arn't censored, but I remembered reading a FAQ by GurdyGurt about da REALLY old DDR games up to Max for Arcade & saw some amazing stuff. Examples from his FAQ:

DDR will censor the following names (in DDR Best Hits - odds are older ones will only censor some of these). If anyone is easily offended, go away, but these 'names' don't mean much to the uneducated:

XXX
SEX
buttocks
AHO
JAP
F&K
F@C
KKK
AUM-something to do with Tokyo Subway thing long time ago.
IRA
LSD

Also note that this list of naughty names also seems to apply to Konami's other titles in recent years, as well as games by other manufacturers...Marvel vs Capcom 2 rejected AUM as well! So did Street Fighter Alpha!

In 5th MIX PSX/DDRMAX the list of censored names expanded to include:(He censored the blatantly offensive ones. Basically if it's not insulting by itself and not said on TV, it's censored. Only very nasty racist ones have been censored, regardless of race)

/ spaces \
ETA WOP T*T PUD PK PK JEW GAY
cigarette 666 YAH WAD RIM PEE NUT NFG
LOO JAY GOD FUD CUT CUM CAN SNK^
765

TYON ROUA OSHI F**K EATA ETTA C*CK CHON
BUSU WOPS T*TS SUCK S**T P**S PAKI NAZI
KYKE KILL JEWS JAPS GAYS FAGS D**K DEAD
DAMN C**T C**N WUSS WHIZ TWA* T*RD SL*T
SCAT RACK QUIM QUAD POOP PLOW MEAT KIKE
JUGS JOHN JI*Z HUNG HORK HERB HELL HEAD
HAVE GROE G**K FISH FART ERSE DYKE DRAG
DORK DONG DINK KOEI^ ENIX^ SEGA^

While some of these are just plain stupid, once again (HERB is banned but nothing similar to it is - not to mention FISH, NUT, CAN, JOHN..poor John!) it is interesting to note that 4 other games companies (marked with carets) are censored. Especially since DDR 2nd MIX was on Sega Dreamcast...

Now it's ironic is that some of their own songs feature some of the words above - in Beatmania IIdx 3rd Style, the song Schlagwerk (by TaQ) not once, but TWICE has a guy unmistakably saying "This is f**ked up!" in the background!

Now let's look into more into our time, like Max, Max2, & Extreme (Arcade & PS2) & see how much they changed:

The Whistle Song (If ya don't know, shame on you. HOWEVER, they censored this alittle bit with Baby instead of "itch with a B")
After The Game of Love (Actually, they DID censor this in Konamix & I think Ultramix)
Insertation (Think about it......not of CD's & hard drives)

Add more stuff if ya can think of more.

Also: SANA MORETTE NE ENTE is ABSOLUTLY about this girl singing how much her boyfriend plays WAY TOO MUCH Beatmania!

[BraveLittleToaster]

Who takes the time to write something nobody cares about?

[Reenee]

Hay guy, hearing stuff like "fuck" is normal. Japan isn't the U.S. Ever heard of Injection of Love?

[Paranoia_Brother]

Wait... how is "JAP" offensive so therefore they had to censor it? Tell me how DDR finds that offensive? I'm not trying to make you sound bad, i'm just really curious because i'm not finding offense in that at all. JAPan (if that's what i looks and sounds like) is kinda where DDR roughly originated. Explination, please.. interested
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*Formerly known as That DDR guy at Gr. Lakes*

[Reenee]

It was a derogatory term used in WWII.

[Sinistar]

"Jap" became largely offensive during and after World War II when it was used as a derogatory term when regarding the Japanese people. The offensive connotation of "jap" was what prompted the slow shift from the use of the term "japanimation" (which a lot of people misread/mispronounced as "Jap animation" rather than "Japan imation") to the now common anime.

When referring to the nation of Japan in an abbreviated fashion, JPN is almost universally used instead of JAP because of jap's history.

EDIT: Crap, spent too much time explaining and not enough time hitting Submit.
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CF cbox mods and more at the 'Pad'

[Agent J]

Xuxa- As Sinistar and Reenee mentioned while I was typing my post, the word "Jap" is a racial slur for Japanese people. I think it dates back at least to the 1940s with World War II, when suspicion and hatred of Japanese people was running high due to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The appropriate, or perhaps the term I'm looking for is politically correct, abbreviations for Japan is JP. or JPN. However, I actually saw the abbreviation "Jap" on a Japanese webpage once, so go figure. o_O

As for the censored stuff in DDR, that's pretty interesting, in my opinion. I had no idea Aum would be censored, but that makes sense. Aum is a cult in Japan that bombed a Tokyo subway station with sarin gas I think back in the 80s. Seems like terrorism is a big no-no in general, too, if ETA and IRA mean what I think they mean. It's rather odd to see "aho" on there, as well. I thought "aho" just meant something like "dummy" or "stupid". And what's the deal with the banned company names? Was Konami scared that someone would enter "Enix" as their name, someone would walk by the machine, see "Enix" on the high score table, and say, "Hey! I want to go buy the new Dragon Quest game!"? I wonder if all this applies to other Bemani games. It'd be kinda weird if Schlagwerk was tossing the word "fuck" around freely, but you couldn't enter that as your name on the high score list.

Oh yeah, quick question: How was Insertion censored here in the States? I've heard the version on DDRMax US and it didn't sound any different to me.

[Paranoia_Brother]

[[Do V] muffin]

[DjSolstice98]

Uhh-huhh. Question: Why do you know all this?

[Paranoia_Brother]

[Creamy Goodness]

[Davyinatoga]

"Fart?" "Dork?" "Scat/poop?" Awesome.

So they censor "Jew," "Jap," "Paki," and "Gay," but not "Gook?" That's weird.

EDIT: Ah, saw it, G**k, which then why is it the only slur that's starred?
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[jas]

[E-Prime]

Very good, informative topic.

Some of this stuff cracks me up. Dead? Dork? Fart? Who exactly made these censorship rules- Konami or do they just pertain to DDR? Or does the FCC have anything to do with it?

[L.]

[Zonic]

[DemonHybrid]

Actually, DDR dosen't really censor anything. Note "Baby lets cum together" in Oh Nick Please Not So Quick and "F**king you up" in Highs Off U.
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[Fire_Adept]

[Vangulus The Great]